15 snakes and 1 cat seized from home

[Pythonfriend]

some assumptions, just a working theory... we will see if this will really be contradicted as the story develops.

i think there were no venomous snakes. i think they were kept in enclosures, not roaming free. i didnt see any sick snakes, what ive seen looked rather healthy, not too thin, and no stuck shed. my assumption is that the enclosures were on the small end of the spectrum and maybe also not as clean as they should be.

basically my assumption is that it went something like this: law enforcement gets this anonymous tip, people go in, and say "yeah, well, this needs to be cleaner, that enclosure needs to be bigger", based on whatever reptile knowledge they have, basically a warning shot, with the threat that otherwise they might take the animals. and the women tried to cooperate, but didnt really get it done, they all say she was cooperating, but somehow there was no agreement so after a month of back and forth, they moved in and took the snakes. and the media got wind of that, and on a quiet news day its interesting enough when they drag 15 snakes out of a building.


all of this could be wrong, but thats basically whats left of the story when i subtract everything that triggers my horsecrap detector. 1st story says many people handled the snakes, but only one officer got bit, and only from one of the smallest snakes, and this seemed to be good news, as in, easier than expected. and that the snakes were in poor health condition. and then the 2nd story tells us about dangerous venomous snakes, and shows a bunch of non-venomous snakes that appear to be healthy. and what has been said about the health condition is that they were malnourished, which i didnt see, and both stories mentioned the fact that its really bad for the big snakes when they cannot fully stretch out in their enclosure. yeah right. 2nd story mentioned that one of the snake had a spine kink / spine injury. that could be anything, a birth defect or an old injury, who knows. and with the spine injury thing i wonder how they figured out that the snake needs assistance with the bowel movements, unless they got that from the owner. again im speculating, but it seems like the owner cooperated to the point of sharing information about the snakes, including the special needs of the snake with the spine issue.

and i didnt mention some other stuff the media mentioned because its just too far out there.


whats left of the story when you try to seperate the plausible from the implausible and the outlandish and the flat-out lies just isnt much. im not convinced any snakes got hurt, except that now the people that have these 15 random snakes might be even more overwhelmed than the women they took them from. some rescues have policies and will euthanize everything and anything that could not get rehomed within a certain time period, other rescues dont have such deadlines but they have limited capabilities and will euthanize to reduce the burden if its getting too much.


so there is something people in the Houston Texas area can do. this may sound cruel, thats not intended, but there seem to be some 15 nice snakes up for grabs in the Houston Texas area, including BP, boa constrictor, and retic or burm. how nice of the media to tell us that they were moved to a SECRET LOCATION. yeah, 15 snakes now need new homes, potentially they need new homes really soon because they are on a deadline. and the media, just in case a snake keeper with a big heart reads the story, tells us that they are now at a *secret location*. i mean, if they would not keep that secret, there might be people calling, asking if they can take care of some of the snakes !

(irony) can you imagine how terrible that is for a reptile sanctuary, when strangers call them and write emails and want to take care of the reptiles? obviously the media had to intervene and prevent that by reporting that the snakes were moved to a secret location (/irony)

and to be honest, thats the only aspect of the story i really care about. what will happen to the snakes, and if people want them, where do they call? is there a guy in Austin who could take care of it, get pictures of the snakes and share them online, and do stuff like maybe organizing shipping for some of them, just in case people from elsewhere also want to help? maybe funnel the snakes into a benefit auction for a herp society or something like that? worst case scenario: the snakes are currently in the hands of people who typically deal with dogs and cats and are now overwhelmed, combined with a deadly deadline. the 2nd story mentioned that the snakes were transported in kennels for dogs and cats, and that they had to hack together custom transport boxes for the biggest ones. that does not sound good. that sounds like some people need some help from some reptile experts that are connected in the community.

so thats how i would like the story to end: responsible owners track down the snakes, get the whole issue under the control of snake keepers and reptile experts, and when that is done we will also find out what really went down.